Day 234: Freedom and Responsibility

Freedom is the power, rooted in reason and will, to act or not to act, to do this or that, and so to perform deliberate actions on one's own responsibility. By free will, one shapes one's own life. Human freedom is a force for growth and maturity in truth and goodness; it attains its perfection when directed toward God, our beatitude. CCC 1731

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses the Church's understanding of what true freedom is and the responsibility it entails. For many modern Americans, focused on freedom, the responsibility that comes with it can be overlooked. As Christians, we believe that the more we choose to respond to God and do good in our lives, "the freer one becomes," because "true freedom [comes] in the service of what is good and just" (CCC 1733). We have the freedom to choose to do good and also to do evil. Yet choosing the latter "is an abuse of freedom and leads to "'the slavery of sin'" (Rom 6:17).

The Catechism Compendium summarizes the understanding of the relationship between freedom and responsibility:

Freedom makes people responsible for their actions to the extent that they are voluntary, even if the imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or sometimes cancelled by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, inordinate attachments, or habit. (#364)

The Catechism Companion, Vol II has some good commentary on this:

Who we choose to be earlier in life is who we ultimately end up becoming later in life. There is sin on earth because we have the capacity to say yes or no to God. In heaven, our freedom has been perfected... If we are going to exercise our freedom, we also have to be willing to take responsibility. (p. 232)